The Stars
by DioLink
Summary: Kratos walks with Noishe remembering his past. SPOILER


DioLink: Flashback oneshot with Kratos. Comical, emotional, hope you like it.

Sheena: DioLink doesn't own ToS

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**The Stars**

The night was cool and quiet, perfect setting for the mercernary, Kratos. Lloyd had volunteered to be nightwatch this particular night, finding Kratos needed a little time to think he let Lloyd take the position for this, and only this, night. He walked along the beach nearby listening to the waves and...light padding behind him? Kratos turned to find Noishe shyly following and smiled slightly. "Noishe, you don't have to be scared." Kratos went to one knee and waited for the animal to come over to him. The protozoan whimpered quietly as he rubbed his head against Kratos' cheek. "I missed you too, Noishe." The mercenary took the animal's face and looked intothe animal's black eyes. "So much is held within them...so many memories..."

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"As you can see, Lord Kratos, we are creating a new kind of exsphere in an experiment called the Angelus Project. An exsphere is being made inside the body of a human, once the exsphere is ready the subject will die." A soldier explained as he led Kratos through the Angelus Project.

"I am fully aware of what happens in the Angelus Project what I'm confused about is why you are repeating this to me when you should be showing me the human you have selected!" Kratos spoke coldly as he looked to the soldier. "Take me to the victim now."

"Y-yes, Lord Kratos!" The soldier nervously travelled throughout the ranch until he came to a cell in which a young woman sat. "In there. Her name is Anna."

"Anna..." Kratos lightly narrowed his eyes as he peered in. A young woman was sitting in the corner drawing symbols in the dust. Her clothes were torn and dirty, her blonde hair was up in a messy bun and she was utterly filthy looking. "Such an unfortunate woman. What has the angelus project done to her mentally?"

"She seems to have given up on caring about anything. Her emotions have all been neutralized."

"Permanent?"

"Yes."

"Very well." Kratos looked to the woman with cold eyes. They widened as she looked up to him with a blank stare and came over. She looked straight into his eyes for a moment before she scowled.

"A human...you are a human...how can you be so cruel to your own kind?" She yelled as she bent down. "Get away from here!" She stood straight up and started throwing pebbles at Kratos. "Men like you should be in here! They should be turned into exspheres! They should be sacrificed!"

"Woman, you don't know who you're dealing with." Kratos turned. "I will report back, inform me if there is any other changes to her...emotions. It seems your theory of her emotions being neutralized permanently has shown it's true colours."

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"I was so cold back then...never caring for anyone...no one but Yuan and Mithos had mattered." Kratos released Noishe's face and continued walking along the beach with the large animal following me. "Anna...she had hated me for so long..."

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"Stop slacking woman!" A soldiers yelled as he whipped Anna about the back.

"Ah!" Anna screamed as she fell to the ground and shook violently. "Please stop! Please! Ah!" Her cries of pain did nothing as the assault continued leaving large bleeding marking in her skin. Thescreams of pain only pushed them to beat her harder; they laughed at her suffering.

"Demon Fang!" A burst of energy travelled about the ground and knocked the one Desian over. "That's enough!" Kratos stood at the entrance to the Iselia Ranch with his blade unsheathed. "We need her alive!" He sheathed his blade and walked over. "Leaver her to me...I'll make sure she's returned to her cell."

"Yes, Lord Kratos!" The Desians rolledtheir whips up and walked off.

As soon as the Desians were out of his sight Kratos leaned down and helped Anna off the ground. "Are you alright?"

"What?" Anna looked to Kratos, surprise written over her face. "You...are actually caring about those you hate?" Her surprise turned to a slightly more angry look.

"Care has nothing to do with it." He pulled her arm over his neck and helped her into the ranch. "We need you alive in order for this project to continue successfully."

"Keh." She pulled her arm back from Kratos and pushed him away from her. "I don't need help from the likes of y-ah!" She fell to the ground "Oww..." She touched her arm and sat up holding it tightly.

"Are you sure?" Kratos walked over to her and held a hand out. "I'm not a cruel as you want to believe." Anna looked up to Kratos and studied his face carefully, there was a gently gaze in his eyes, no longer the cold glare that she used to recieve. She looked to her arm before removing her hand from her arm and taking his...a blush striking across her face.

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"Every since that day I had never let another things happen to her." Kratos looked to Noishe and lightly pet his head. "She was starting to mean everything...I had to get her out of there."

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"Forcystus! We have a breach in the cells! Number 0012 is missing!" A desian commander reported.

"Anna...find her! Close down the ranch, do not let anyone out! No one is to leave until that woman is retrieved!" Forcystus commanded. "Bring up every survallance camera in the ranch!" There was silence in the control room as screen after screen started to pop up of every camera. All blank and calm...suddenly a blur of auburn rushed past a camera followed by blonde. "Freeze tape number 08. Go back a little." The commander did as his superior instructed. "Stop it there!" The tape was frozen as the blur of blonde was in sight. "Clear it up." The image came clear to reveal Anna's features. "All personal head to the SouthWest portion of the building A-S-A-P!"

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"Kratos...the alarm had sounded! How are we going to get out of here now!" Anna spoke as she kept a tight grip on the man's hand.

"Leave that to me, I know this ranch well enough. I'll get us out of here." Kratos responded as he held Anna's hand tightly. Each door they came to he would enter the password and continue on. They were making excellent progress until a desian commander blocked their exit.

"Lord Kratos! You caught the criminal! Excellent, Lord Forcystus wishes her presence imme-!" The desian's words were halted as blood started to pour from his mouth. Looking down he found the slender sword belonging to Kratos sliding from his stomach. "Lord...Kratos..."

The heavy thump of the desian's body sent sickening shivers through Kratos as he looked to Anna. "Come, we don't have much time!"

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"The word of Anna's escape had gotten to the other ranches only minutes after we had climbed over the fence and disappeared into the forest. For days upon days we had been running and time had started to run short...yet...with all the fleeing we had done together we had gotten closer...untill..." Kratos stopped and closed his eyes lightly._ 'I still remember the beautiful smile on her face when I had asked for her hand...'_ He opened his eyes slightly and turned towards the sea and the reflection of the moon shinning off the water. "That feeling of joy that had gone through me...what I would give for that to happen again." The mercenary continued his walk. "A wedding in the House of Salvation near Asgard...I regret never heaving it as wonderful as Anna would have hoped." He looked to the night sky. "That night we had shared our first bed...that night which our son was conceived..." Kratos looked back down as he chuckled lightly. "Heh...on the day Lloyd was born things had only gotten more complicated."

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The desians were in hot persuit of the fleeing couple on that cold, rainy day. Kratos could hear their cries of the direction they had gone. "Nothing could possibly make this worse." Kratos panted

"Ah!" Anna screamed as she fell to her knees and grabbed her stomach. A pool of liquid surrounding her.

"Anna!" Kratos skidded to a halt and rushed back to his new wife, confused as to what was happening. "What-?"

"Kratos! Nngh...I'm having the baby." She gripped his shirt tightly as she looked to his eyes pain starting to show in them.

_'Just when I thought things couldn't get anymore complicated.'_ With a heavy grunt Kratos lifted Anna in his arms and held her tight. "Just hold on."

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_'It was a fortunate thing Anna was as tiny as she was, it made things a lot easier on me.'_ "I was running for fifteen minutes before I was able to seek shelter at Lake Umacy. Not long after we lost the desians I rushed her to Luin."

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Kratos paced just outside the room of the inn in which his wife was giving birth. Fear streaking through him. Kratos had never been so nervous throughout his entire life, even as a child. He would stop every once in awhile and look to the door before he continued pacing. The people of Luin watched curiously at Kratos' actions. His breathing was ragged and shaky. He had already drank over two times his weight in water, though his throat remained dry and scratchy. After a few hours of constant pacing the doctor opened the door.

Kratos immediatly stopped and looked to him with widened eyes. He didn't even have to be told anything and he walked into the room. There was Anna, sitting up in bed with a tiny infant held in her arms. Her blonde bangs stuck to her forehead and smile on her face.

Kratos went over to her side and looked to her before down at their son, he opened his large brown eyes and looked to Kratos and Anna groaning lightly before turning into his mother. "Well, shall we think of a name?" Anna asked as she looked to Kratos.

Kratos smiled, forcing his eyes from his son to look to his beautiful wife. "You decide."

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"It took Anna a week to finally figure out what to call him. She finally settled on the name Lloyd." Kratos smiled. "It fit him perfectly too."

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"Kratos!" Anna screamed above Lloyd's high pitch cry. "Kratos I need you to change Lloyd."

"Me?" Kratos looked to Lloyd as he lay on the soft grass, his face red from screaming so much. "Uhh...al...alright..." Kratos kneeled down and undid the pin on the side of the diaper. "Ugh...what do you feed this kid?"

"Only what you get me. Quickly finish up so I can wash his diaper."

"Good luck with it." Kratos quickly removed the diaper and handed it to Anna who started to clean the clothing. As he turned to look back to Lloyd, he was gone. "Uh oh."

"After you're done changing him bring him here,I need to give him a bath."

"Uh...sure thing." Kratos looked about nervously as he tried to find where his son had gone. "Lloyd." He called quietly. "Lloyd where are you?"

"Kratos what's taking so long?"

"Umm, nothing! Just...having a little trouble..." _'With actually finding the kid.'_

"Do you need help?"

"No! No, t-that's alright." Kratos called back, he stuck his head in a bush and looked about. "Lloyd where are you?" He whispered demandingly.

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"If he hadn't started giggling I never would have found him." Kratos shook his head. "Lloyd was a handful and a half...and with the Desians still chasing us...it was even more difficult." Kratos stopped at the edge of the beach and sat down upon a large rock watching the waves splash on the shore.

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"C'mon Lloyd, mushed..." Kratos looked to the baby food in his hand and frowned in a confused matter. "...whatever it is...is good for you." Kratos held the spoon out for Lloyd to take.

"No!" Lloyd turned his head and pushed Kratos' hand away. "Yucky."

"C'mon Lloyd...look, daddy likes it." Kratos took a bite of the food, his eyes widened in disgust as he leaned over and spit it out. "Okay, daddy doesn't like it." Kratos sighed as he closed the lid of the baby food. "What's mommy trying to feed you?"He leaned down and picked up a pack and put the baby food in. He looked about before digging into the bag and pulling out a small thing of pudding. "Shh, don't tell mommy."

"Put it back, Kratos." Anna spoke as she came from the bushes her hair wet from her bath. "If you keep feeding him sweets he'll never start eating real food." She came over to Kratos and her son kissing each of them on the forehead. "Lloyd's probably not hungry."

"He always seems to be hungry for you." Kratosgrumbled quietly as he placed the food away. He looked to Anna as she leaned down and smiledbefore she kissed his lips lightly.

"I never thought I'd hear you grumble something like that." Her smiled turned down. "Don't do it again." She stood and turned to Lloyd picking him up.

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"Not long after that...Kvar found us..." Kratos winced lightly. "After Anna's death and Lloyd's and your disappearance, Noishe...I stopped caring. I stopped caring for anyone including myself..." Kratos sighed as he looked to the rising sun and slid off of the rock. "Once I met Anna, my bitter life had turned into a more joyous one. I had a family I loved, a reason to continue living on...but once I lost everything...nothing mattered anymore. I only let myself continue living...so that my son may help me atone for my sins." Kratos looked back to the path he had taken, his and Noishe's footprints depressed into the soft sand. "My only regret...is ever letting her go. Anna..." Kratos pulled a bronze locket from under his shirt out and opened it up looking to the family picture of them inside. "...I'll give this to our son...when I know...he is ready."

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DioLink: Okay! I know the flashbacks aren't really Kratos but think of the reasons why he was so bitter and serious. Before meeting Anna he hated humans due to Martel's death. After Anna died he turned into the state we saw during the game. I only placed a little more joy into that, Kratos is a good father from the way he tries to protect Lloyd in the game, therefore he would cherish the moment he has with him when he was just a child. Any proud father would act something like that. 


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